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Originally Posted by The_Article
Nearly three months before the death of a 21-year-old Nashville man who was shocked up to 19 times with police Tasers, the devices' maker sent a bulletin to police departments — including Metro — warning them of the potentially deadly consequences of repeatedly shooting suspects with the stun guns.
In particular, the company said, officers should avoid repeatedly using Tasers against people showing symptoms of "excited delirium," a drug-induced state of agitation.
"These (people) are at significant and potentially fatal health risks from further prolonged exertion and/or impaired breathing," the June 28 training bulletin states.
Despite the warning, two Metro officers repeatedly fired 50,000-volt surges of electricity into Patrick Lee, who had stripped naked after being bounced from a Cannery Row nightclub Thursday and had told officers that he was under the influence of drugs.
State authorities said yesterday that five doses of LSD were found in Lee's wallet, and a small amount of marijuana was found in his pants.
Metro police officials said they had sent the advisories by e-mail to their Taser-equipped officers, but police officials concede that the department did not modify its own written policy regarding the use of Tasers.
The bulletin is being incorporated into in-service training, but neither of the officers, Officers Jonathan Mays and Jamie Scruggs, who used Tasers in Thursday's incident had received that training yet. Both remain on duty, although they have been relieved of their Tasers.
Department officials said they did not know whether officers had read the bulletins or whether the communications simply were ignored among the volume of e-mails regularly sent to officers.
The Metro police officers who are armed with Tasers should generally understand that any bulletins from the manufacturer are to be followed, department spokes-
man Don Aaron said.
"When advisories or bulletins from Taser International come out, we essentially adopt those as our policy," he said.
Metro police officials are investigating whether the two Metro officers who used their stun guns violated policy. Aaron said it was unclear whether officers could be punished for violations of a bulletin, such as the one issued by Taser, that were not formally incorporated into the department's policy.
Lee's father, Earl Bud Lee, is a songwriter who co-wrote Garth Brooks' hit Friends in Low Places. Nashville attorney Tommy Overton, who is investigating the death for Lee's family, said a private autopsy seems to indicate that the Taser contributed to the death.
"From talking to my expert this afternoon, in my opinion it is more than evident that the use of the Tasers and the manner in which they were used on the night in question contributed to Mr. Lee's death," he said.
Lee's death is the second to occur in Nashville this year after the use of police Tasers. In May, Walter Lamont Seats died after being shocked. In that case, police quickly defended the devices, saying Seats died from asphyxiation after swallowing drugs. The Tasers were not to blame, Metro police said.
Tasers can deliver a debilitating jolt of electrical current through a person for up to five seconds.
Metro, like many other departments, has credited the stun guns with reducing uses of force and injuries to officers and suspects.
The latest incident began late Thursday when Lee was ejected twice from Mercy Lounge, a nightclub near Eighth Avenue South.
Lee had tried to approach too closely to a performer working on stilts and was acting in a bizarre fashion, police said.
The odd behavior continued outside as police arrived. Lee stripped naked and ran around in the street.
Officers struggled to restrain Lee — in part because he was naked and sweaty. They delivered baton strikes to his lower body, and at one point two officers deployed their stun guns and fired repeatedly.
Paramedics were called after Lee appeared to be in respiratory and cardiac arrest. He was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead Saturday.
Relatives have said that hospital workers found Valium and marijuana in his system. Medical examiners have requested more sensitive tests that could detect whether he had ingested LSD.
Taser International's bulletin warns that multiple, prolonged jolts with the devices could lead to serious breathing problems.
"Repeated, prolonged, and/or continuous exposure(s) to the Taser electrical discharge may cause strong muscle contractions that may impair breathing and respiration, particularly when the probes are placed across the chest or diaphragm," the bulletin states.
In Lee's case, the stun guns were fired into his chest and back, according to the Metro medical examiner.
The July 6 e-mail message from Metro police officials to officers carried the following instructions: "This memo from Taser International is very important: Read all of it."
The message then told the officers to call the Metro police confrontation management officers if they had any questions.
Taser use by police departments has been controversial with critics questioning the devices' safety and supporters defending them as preferable to other, more lethal forms of force.
Medical examiners in some cities have urged police in their towns to use more restraint.
In Miami, for example, Broward County Medical Examiner Joshua Perper was quoted in an Aug. 6 Miami Herald article saying that he tells police there not to use a Taser on someone more than twice, citing the potential for death.
In July, a Chicago medical examiner formally ruled that a suspect's death was caused by a Taser.
Metro Medical Examiner Bruce Levy said that he has not advised Metro police in the past about the potential dangers of Taser devices, saying that was not his job.
In general, however, he sees the possibility that Tasers can kill.
"My opinion about Tasers is that they are a tool like any other tool that law enforcement uses," Levy said. "Any tool has potential complications — even the death of an individual."
Warning from Taser
Here is an excerpt from a June 28 bulletin from Taser International that warned police officers about the dangers of shooting someone multiple times with the company's stun guns:
"Repeated, prolonged and/or continuous exposure(s) to the Taser electrical discharge may cause strong muscle contractions that may impair breathing and respiration, particularly when the probes are placed across the chest or diaphragm. Users should avoid prolonged, extended, uninterrupted discharges or extensive multiple discharges whenever practicable in order to minimize the potential for over-exertion of the subject or potential impairment of full ability to breathe over a protracted time period."
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17-10-2005, 22:31
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